February 4, 2010 Mike Kluse, director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, was on hand to unveil plaques celebrating Ward TeGrotenhuis, center, and Glen Fryxell, right, as part of the ceremony for the Battelle Distinguished Inventor held January 28, 2010.

Ward TeGotenhuis is the MBIs PNNL co-director.

TeGrotenhuis joins an elite rank of Battelle Distinguished Inventors, a designation that recognizes staff members who have received 14 or more U.S. patents.

PNNL employees' Battelle Distinguised Inventor award plaques are displayed both in Richland, Washington, on the PNNL campus and in the Environment Technology Building Lobby at Battelle corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.

TeGrotehuis has been at PNNL for 16 years. He is a chief engineer and team lead in the Hydrocarbon Processing Group. He is an expert in microchannel separation technologies, reaction engineering, and integrated systems modeling. Most of his patents are in microchannel separation technologies.